Patch 2.4.3 PTR Patch Notes

Last updated December 7 @ 11:30 a.m. PST.Below you'll find the preliminary PTR patch notes for patch 2.4.3. Please note that this isn't the final version of the patch notes and that some changes may not be documented or described in full detail.

Table of Contents:

A mysterious group of Cultists is stirring up trouble! Hunt them down in Adventure Mode to uncover clues that reveal a portal into Tristram’s past, and rediscover the terrifying darkness that took hold of the town so many years ago…
This event is only available in January

Hardware Support

Support has been added for the Corsair Utility Engine (CUE) SDK and Razer peripherals

Supported backlit keyboards will respond to certain in-game situations like Legendary and Set item drops, characters leveling up, and more
Players will need to update their firmware for supported devices to use this feature

With this, players should see improvements to system performance and faster loading times
This change uses DirectX 11 natively, which brings support for normal maps, per pixel lighting and improved anti-aliasing options
The 32-bit client is still available as an option through the Battle.net Launcher

Now has 3 charges
Cooldown per charge remains 12 seconds with a chance to be reduced slightly by critical strikes

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue which caused Wave of Light to sometimes fail to deal damage when players were under the effect of Epiphany
Fixed a bug which prevented a Hydra from being spawned when two Mirror Images attempted to cast Summon Hydra at the same time
Fixed an issue which caused the active effect of Earth Ally and Fire Ally to not benefit from Attacks Per Second or +Mystic Ally damage
Fixed an issue which prevented the Archon version of Teleport from correctly incorporating the player’s attacks per second
(PTR Only) Fixed an issue that prevented Grenades from dealing Area Damage
(PTR Only) Fixed an issue that prevented Grenades from utilizing Life on Hit
(PTR Only) Fixed an issue which prevented critical strikes from correctly resetting the recharge time on Overpower

Periodically struggle for control, unleashing a ring of Fire that inflicts 1000% 12,500% weapon damage to enemies it passes through

With the above change, the primary effect of the gem deals significantly more damage at the gem’s base level, but scales more slowly with additional levels

After gaining a level, your resource costs are removed and cooldowns on skills are reduced by 75% for 15 30 seconds (Requires Rank 25)

Class Specific Items

New items have been added to the game

Crusader

Armor of Akkhan

Talisman of Akkhan (Amulet)

Has been added as a 7th piece to Armor of Akkhan
The set’s current bonuses and powers remain the same

This amulet will always roll with Critical Hit Chance in addition to 3 other random affixes

Some existing class-specific Legendary items have been updated to include a unique Legendary power

Note: Existing items will not be affected by the following changes; only new versions of the items will roll with the added Legendary power
With the below changes, the minimum levels required to use these items have been adjusted to match the level at which their corresponding skills unlock
Barbarian

Instead of dealing direct damage, your Spirit Barrage now accumulates on the target
When you stop <s>channeling</s> casting, it explodes dealing <s>225-250% of</s> the accumulated damage to all enemies within 15 yards

(PTR Only) Fixed an issue that was causing the explosion created by this item to fail if a large amount of damage was stored
(PTR Only) Fixed an issue that was causing the explosion created by this item to fail if the stored damage exceeded the target’s current health(PTR Only) Fixed an issue preventing +Spirit Barrage damage from applying to the explosions created by the skill when equipped with this item

Fixed an issue which sometimes caused cosmetic pets to be dismissed unintentionally, requiring the player to resummon them through the collections UI
Fixed a bug causing transmogrify options to not properly unlock sometimes when first acquiring an item which grants a new transmogrify option
Fixed a bug which caused the buff from the Legendary item Ahvarion, Spear of Lycander to end when changing floors in a Greater Rift
Fixed an issue which caused the Bones cosmetic pet to incorrectly produce sound when players interacted with some user interface elements
Fixed an issue which caused +Elemental damage bonuses on weapons to override the damage bonus granted to Ancient Spear by Skular’s Salvation and its elemental type
Fixed an issue which allowed Necrosis damage from the Helltooth Harness set to be reflected back by some enemies onto Witch Doctors using projectiles like Poison Dart
(PTR Only) Fixed an issue which caused the Soulstone Shard to trigger its special effect while players were in town
(PTR Only) Fixed an issue causing gem removal costs to be reduced to zero

The Destroyer and Guardian tiers of the Season Journey will no longer require players to augment an Ancient Legendary item using level 30 or higher and level 40 or higher Legendary gems, respectively
Along with this, the Conqueror tier now requires players to augment one Ancient Legendary item using a Legendary Gem at level 50 or higher

Bug Fixes

(PTR Only) Fixed an issue which caused text display issues with some Season Journey objectives

Enemy density and overall map size have been reduced
This area can now appear as the starting dungeon in Rifts and Greater Rifts

Greater Rifts

We have made a number of changes to improve the play experience of Greater Rifts

The Greater Rift progress bar now displays the percentage completion at the end of the bar when it is nearly filled
Monsters should now be more evenly distributed on each floor in Greater Rifts

Along with this, the experience and Greater Rift progression awarded for defeating many smaller monsters has been increased

The size of each floor in a Greater Rift is now more consistent

On average, a rift should take between two and four floors to clear

There is no longer an increased chance to see the same tile set when you venture down a floor in a Greater Rift
There is now a guaranteed area at the entrance of each floor with no monsters

This area is just large enough for ranged characters to maneuver

Several additional monster types can now appear as Champions and Elites

The stacking effect of the following is now cleared upon entering a Greater Rift

The items Lord Greenstone’s Fan, Fortress Ballista and Flail of the Ascended
The skills Arcane Dynamo and Mythic Rhythm

The gold reward and empower cost for Greater Rift 25 and above have been increased

The ratio between gold reward and empower cost remains about the same

Players will now get an extra chance to upgrade their Legendary Gems if they do not die in a Greater Rift

Greed’s Realm

The portal to Greed’s Realm will now close 60 seconds after opening Greed’s chest
With this, players may now open multiple portals to the realm in a single game

Zones

The waypoint for Pandemonium Fortress Level 2 in Adventure Mode has been moved from the entrance to the midpoint of the level in order to provide quicker access to some bounties

With this change, bounties requiring you to kill unique enemies will only spawn these enemies in the first half of the dungeon, and all monsters on the map will contribute to bounty progress

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue preventing the scene for Bounty: Research Problems from spawning
Fixed bugs that led to large open areas with no monsters in some rooms in Greater Rifts, which was especially common near the entrance to certain floors

Several enemies that leap at the player can now be killed in mid-air, including Winged Assassins, Punishers, Lacuni Huntresses, and Burrowing Leapers
Several enemies that can become un-attackable, such as Sandsharks, Snakemen, and Rockworms now spend more time vulnerable. When these enemies do burrow or stealth, they no longer remain in this state for more than 3 seconds
In addition, emerging Rockworms now always show ground cracks to help attentive players avoid their initial attack

Enemy Affixes

Shielding

Will now be cancelled immediately if the shielded monster is the last remaining monster in a pack

Reflects Damage

Now fires a projectile instead of instantly dealing damage to the player
The warning duration for this affix has been reduced from 2 seconds to 1, and its active duration has been reduced from 6 seconds to 4

Electrified

Crawling lightning generated by this affix now pierces, allowing it to damage multiple targets in succession
With this, the damage caused by this affix has been reduced by about 35%

Juggernaut

New enemy affix

Juggernaut monsters are permanently immune to crowd control effects, but move more slowly than normal monsters
Only a rare Elite enemy can be a Juggernaut

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue which caused Winged Assassins to sometimes travel across the ground instead of through the air when leaping
Fixed an issue which prevented Greater Rift Guardians from reliably teleporting to players when they spawned more than a few screens away
Fixed an issue which sometimes cause Rift Guardians to spawn in a location where they couldn’t be targeted

Fixed display and text issues with some skills and items
Fixed an issue causing keybind issues when the UI was hidden
Fixed a bug which caused Followers to sometimes become idle in combat
Fixed an issue which prevented Followers from being dismissed while they were incapacitated in battle
Fixed an issue which allowed pets and Followers to be attacked immediately after exiting a portal

Players on the PTR will now receive a special bag from normal Rift Guardians Djank M'iem, a vendor who appears in each town hub in Adventure Mode and Campaign Mode
This bag costs 300 Blood Shards and contains class-specific items that are being tested for the upcoming patch
This bag will always drop items which are specific to the class which opens it
In cases where the PTR bag contains a weapon, the bag will also drop a Flawless Emerald and a Ramaladni’s Gift